Where has Windows 11 gone wrong? Windows 10 users are stalling or defecting – so Microsoft needs to fix this one glaring issue

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Where has Windows 11 gone wrong? Windows 10 users are stalling or defecting – so Microsoft needs to fix this one glaring issue Opinion By Darren Allan published 29 November 2025

Get over this AI fixation, Microsoft – that's what many are telling you, so listen and rejig your priorities

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Windows 11 has hit some very choppy waters of late. There's never been much in the way of plain sailing for Microsoft's newest operating system, right from its inception, mind you, for various reasons. Whether that's complaints of 'it's just not that different from Windows 10' except that maybe 'it has more bugs', or 'this feature that I love is missing', or 'this part of the interface is slower than Windows 10'. Or indeed 'stop shoving ads in my face, Microsoft' (although that happens on Windows 10, too, but not quite as much).

However, Microsoft has, of late, likely lost all its mirth (one top executive in particular certainly seems to have done so), because there has been something of an explosion of unpopularity around Windows 11. This rather intense burst of hate – in some quarters, because yes, this isn't an all-pervading sentiment – is largely wrapped up in one issue: AI.

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Microsoft recently revealed some big new features for Windows 11, and many key pieces revolved around AI and so-called AI agents. Indeed, the software giant went as far as saying that Windows 11 is now 'evolving into an agentic OS' and that sparked quite a rebellion. Folks complained in droves that 'people don't want this' and that Microsoft should instead be working on some of the fundamental parts of Windows 11, which are still wonky, four years after its launch.

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The timing of this fresh push with AI can't be coincidental, seeing as it came a month after Windows 10 hit its end of support – earlier in November, when the first update wasn't delivered to unsupported PCs. Presumably, the idea was to show off the sparkling agentic future of Windows 11 in the hope that this would help encourage some Windows 10 users to upgrade (those who had started to worry about their security, lacking those updates). If so, the plan backfired quite spectacularly.

Potential upgraders to Windows 10 didn't end up marvelling at the tricks they might be able to eventually avail themselves of if they went ahead and upgraded to Windows 11. Yes, they were likely astonished, true enough – not by the potential of AI, but rather the fiery outpouring of complaints about how Microsoft needs to fix the basics with Windows 11 before worrying about fancy AI trimmings.

This amounted to a lot of pointing out Windows 11's various shortcomings (some of which I touched on at the outset) and awkward questions being raised. Like: why is File Explorer (the basic folders on your desktop) so slow compared to Windows 10?

Seeing the level of anger reached in some posts must have been off-putting to some onlookers still on the fence about a Windows 11 upgrade. Small wonder, then, that folks are sticking with Windows 10, as Dell underlines – or looking to Linux, and migrating away from Microsoft's ecosystem entirely, as Zorin OS contends.

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Multiple factors but a simple equation in the end

(Image credit: Lenovo)

Okay, so Microsoft's unfortunately-timed big push for AI has not caused these things all by itself – of course not. Obviously, there are many factors at play, and these Windows 10 holdouts and alternative OS migrators can be largely attributed to two main reasons. First, Windows 11's steep requirements rule out their old PC from having the newer OS at all. And secondly, the fact that consumers can get extended support for Windows 10 for an extra year through to October 2026 (so they can put off their upgrading or migrating decision).

However, I wouldn't underestimate how Microsoft's renewed drive with AI is weighing in with what's currently playing out here. There is a growing feeling that Microsoft is becoming too distant from the little people – you know, the ones who sit at their PCs who actually use Windows 11. Microsoft's marketing efforts are becoming more important than its relationship with the actual Windows 11 user base. Shouting about AI from the rooftops and throwing around buzzwords like 'agentic AI' might well impress shareholders and the like, but it isn't impressing the people who keep Windows alive by using it on a daily basis.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying this next round of AI features is inherently bad – I don't know enough to judge yet, though I have some concerns. What is bad, though, is Microsoft's marketing strategy. It needs to chill on the AI PR front and start thinking about underlining how it's listening to user feedback, and launching more initiatives to fix the fundamentals with Windows 11. Tuning performance, honing the existing interface, and fixing bugs.

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Admittedly, Microsoft has just started doing exactly that in addressing a problem I mentioned before (with File Explorer performance) this week – but it needs to do more of this. Much more. And make more noise about it, too. That'd really help with turning around the more negative perceptions of Windows 11 out there, and it might just mean that the relative trickle of Windows 11 upgrades (compared to how Windows 10 benefited from Windows 7's demise) might just turn into a steadier stream of recruits.

It's a simple equation, really: [less hype about AI] + [more focus on fixing the basic problems with the OS] = [more Windows 11 users].

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TOPICS Windows 11 Windows 10 Microsoft AI Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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